Atomic Night
by Trylynn
Summary: leave it to the humans to evolve into more of a threat to themselves then the mystical world. Can Edward save Bella? and what will the end of the world mean for vampires? AU
1. prolog

**A/N: ** **I have been dreaming up this story for sometime now but had needed to do some major research to get it right. What will happen to the immortals when the end of the world strikes? Here is just a short preface, please let me know if you like the idea. **

**preface**

Humans were always so weak, so breakable, and yet so dense to all the threats that lived right underneath their nose. There was a whole other mystical world hiding out there, werewolves, witches, monsters, demons, and worst of all me, a soulless thirsty vampire. Any one of these destitute creatures would have been more then happy to end any human life they ever came in contact with. The only hope a human had was to would remain clueless, and be lucky enough not to cross paths with the real life versions of their diluated nightmares. Bella Swan had never been lucky.

I should of known better then to allow her into the other side of this world, but I was selfishly in love. Yet, as my love for her grew, so did my resolve and desire to protect her. In the end, I made the only choice that I thought would ever give Bella a chance of a safe, normal, happy human existence; I left her. I attempted to take her back out of this world in order to protect her. But there was something I had never counted on, and that was human's own destructive tendencies. Leave it to the humans to evolve into more of a threat to themselves then any one of us monsters put together. I should of seen this coming, and now I may not have enough time to get back to Bella before it is too late. And, even if I do make it to her, well then what?


	2. Chapter 1: Tick, tick, tick

Chapter one: Tick, tick tick...

* * *

Carnival in Brazil, a time for the humans to celebrate their own dark nature before willingly entering into a period of penance. Only their penance had a finite set of time. Their punishment would end after forty days and forty nights when they would be free again, their souls clean once more. _Quite fitting_ I groaned to myself as I rested my head against the pink insulation lining the dark attic walls. I had turned this desolate place into my own personal jail cell just over three weeks ago after failing once again to catch Victoria yet again. It had been a long six month game of cat and mouse with her, and I just didn't have the strength to pursue it myself anymore. I hadn't willingly drank a drop since the day I left _her_ in the woods. Now the taste of cooper and salt simply repulsed me, a constant reminder of the monster I had become.

Now all I could muster the strength to do is wallow in this room, and I am perfectly fine with that. Closing my eyes, I set my body to stone. The physical noise from the streets below is loud and unwavering, piercing my sensitive ears sharply. But at least those sounds are relativity happy and innocent. The beats of different drums, laughter from children, the sizzle of food carts, all annoyances I could live with. All noises that told me I was where I was supposed to be, held up away from the innocents below, like a dragon in his tower. All sounds which reassured me that leaving my Bella had been the best choice, the only choice.

But those were not the only sounds assaulting my head. There were also the haggard thoughts of the strangers below to contend with. Dark, dirty thoughts that hammered down upon the back of my eye sockets, threatening to pop them out of my head. Thoughts that reminded me that not every human possesses a soul as pure and innocent as _she_ does. _Oh damn I lost my panties, _says one voice, _I wonder if I can pick that guys pocket, _says another. It had been years since I had really paid any attention to the goings ons of humans but now their inner demons were disconcertingly impossible to ignore. With each passing thought I was urged one inch closer to calling my sister, to having her check in on Bella. But I had to resist, my family was suffering enough at my expense, picking up my slack in chasing Victoria, missing her, and missing me too. Besides, anyone of us in more dangerous to Bella then even the scummiest of human souls. We all just have to let her go, our period of pretending to human had come to an end. This dark whole in the world is right where I should be, and I fully intended on staying here for the rest of my existence, basking in the memory of _her_.

And what a memory it is. I close my eyes and allow her to come into my head, blocking out all of the ciaos below. First I see her almond shape eyes in all their milk chocolaty glory. They are twinkling with life and love. Next is that hair, that chestnut brown haven that smelled of strawberry and freesias. I can smell it, I can almost taste it. And then I can feel it, her rose colored lips as hot as fire as they lightly brush against my own hard cold ones. Her's are soft, the lower one slightly fuller then the top and they quiver slightly in innocent nervousness. My body warms immediately to the thought of those lips, the dark walls around me fading away into the imagine of our meadow. _Home _I smile.

_"Bella love, look at the shooting star" I point towards the streaking fire burning across the night sky. "Hurry love make a wish." We are laying on a blanket in the middle of our meadow, her head resting on my hard chest. She smiles and shakes her head ever so slightly._

_ "Silly Edward, I have nothing to wish for, the universe has already given me an angel." Her hands are methodically scratching my forearm and it feels like five little feathers sending shivers down my entire body. Together we sit in comfortable silence, with only the sounds of our breath and her heart in the background. Soon she yawns her in her catlike way, it is late and she is tired. _

_ "Sleep now love, I will wake you when the sun is rising and we can watch it together," I whisper in her ear. She sighs in resignations, she would love to not be a slave to her human ways sometimes, only she does not realize how much of a gift sleeping is. Slowly, I rub her head as I hum her lullaby until I feel her body begin to fully relax into sleep. Once she is out I hold my breath to still my chest for her and continue to star at the stars. _

_ "Edward, Edward I love you." She sings to me through her dreams. I could sit here forever enjoying the site of her closed twitching eyes. But my body is too hard for her and she is getting restless, turning around and wrapping her little hands around my waist. She is squeezing me so tightly... too tightly..._

_ "Bella, love wake up" I say, when did you get so strong..._

** "**Be careful Emmett" I hear from seemingly out of no where. "He is very weak, it will be easy to hurt him." The voice is not unpleasant, musical even, but it is not _her_ voice. "Lighten your grip, but just a little, when he wakes up he will struggle." _Alice, _I think and my beautiful meadow begins to slowly melt away.

"We can't have him running away Alice, he's too fast for us" Emmett grunted as he squeezed onto my ribs a little harder.

"He won't, he will not be able to now, he is too weak" Alice whispered back sadly. "It took me too long to find him this time, we will have to carry him all the way back to the car." Her voice was so quite and small, even for her tiny body. For a second I was racked with regret for what I was doing to my family, I knew I was hurting them. But they were hurting me too now, they had just taken my Bella away all over again. And there was no way I was going to let that happen.

"Give her back to me" I croaked out in a horse, rage filled whisper. _How long had it been since I had last spoken _I wondered. It had only felt like a few instances since I had shut my mind off to the mardi grai nonsense from below, allowing myself a few precious Minuit with her sweet memory. I thrashed about against Emmets strong grasp. But the movement was so utterly and completely draining to me. I would never be able to muscle my way against my strong healthy brother.

"Fuck Emmett, give her back to me now" I cried out this time, before doing the only thing I could think of, sinking my teeth down hard into his bicep. He tasted mostly of burnt maple syrup just as his venom should taste, but mixed in to him was also the tell tale metallic notes of the blood of his last kills. The musky robust pine like taste of a bears blood. It was good.

"Shit Alice, you couldn't of seen that coming" Emmett yelled before slamming down against an old beam on the floor. Yet still he held on to me.

"Sorry Em, it wasn't really a premeditated decision of his" she chirped back.

"yeah, well, you be the one to tell Rose her favorite gun is now scarred" he grimaced back. They were simply ignoring me now, they had no intention of giving in to me and I had no means to break away. I was defeated so I let the dry sobs come out in full force.

"please, please just leave me her with her" I whispered into Emmett leg. _Hell no brother, this is enough now. You are coming home with us, we are your family and we will take care of you. _He thought solemnly to me.

"Oh enough of this shit," said a faint high pitched voice that was clearly still a few blocks away. "Edward I am going to kick your ass this time," it continued. And with that proclamation Rose entered the attic in a streak of blond light. She stopped in front of Emmett, hissing loudly at his injured arm. Delicatly kissing her healing venome down over it.

"Rosie I am fine silly" Emmett chuckled while he rubbed his nose to hers.

"I love babe, you are a beast are you not, but this, well this is getting old real fast." she said looking down her thick eyelashes at me. _Listen to what I am thinking right now dear brother of mine. No one took her away from you, you did that all by yourself. You are the only one who can give her back and I am beyond tired of following your broken ass around the world. You are hurting your mother, she is not eating either, did you know that hot shot? If you want to sulk, fine sulk. But you will do it at home and you will do in on a full stomach. Do you understand me? _

Her harsh thoughts ignited whatever spark of life I had left inside me, I could not stand to think of Esme hurting over something as worthless as me. Nodding my head slightly, I let all the weak fight inside me be extinguished and rested my head on the floor. "Good boy" Rose said, in an oddly comforting tone. "Oh, and by the way, I had a blast killing the red head for you. I will count that as your make up Christmas gift to me. But you'll have to figure out something for Esme and Carlise all on your own."

* * *

January in Alaska, the equivalent of going on vacation in Cancun to a human. Dark to dusk with nothing in between for 30 days straight. It is and has always been the favorite destination for my family. A true solace from the rest of the world, a place where we blend in the most. Esme, Alice, and Rose always love it here because they are free to shop and socialize 24/7. Jasper, because he has much less temptation by was of population here. And Emmett enjoyed the shrill thrill of seeking out hibernating bears to awaken and fight with. It is the place Carlise always takes us when he feels our family needs to reconnect.

So of course, this winter he thought it be best for us to go here. He is hoping it will fix us, well fix me really. But his hopes are futile, I will always be broken. But it matters not to me where we live now, my lives purpose now is solely to humor my family. I eat when they tell me to, I help Esme reinstate when she asks me to, I pretend to read whatever book Carlise brings for me, and do my best to be cordial to my siblings. And, for the most part, my siblings humor me as well, trying hard not to push me the wrong way. They are satisfied with letting me wallow so long as I try to appease Esme and Carlise.

Each and every endless dark day feels like a millennium to me but it is a feeling I slowly grew reacquainted to. I was now even able to keep _her_ out of my head for the most part, this dark wet, cold environment providing no real association of her to me. It was only when her face would pop into the head of one of the family would I feel anything other then numbness. They all tried to hide their thoughts from me, but it was impossible to do so all of the time. At least Alice had seemed to learned how to tune out any visions of her as I had requested. She had to have moved on by now, probably even had a new love in her life, and I feared what it would do to me if any image of that ever popped into my mind.

On this day the house was even more quite then normal, Alice and I being the only two not out on a hunt. I was still only feeding when it was absolutely necessary, and today she was the one nominated to be my babysitter. She lounged in the living room, sketching away at her imaginary fashion line. In my head I could see the clean flowing lines appear effortlessly onto the paper. Her work had started to become really well put together lately, and would look right at home walking down any runway in New York. But Alice was sastifed only dressing herself, Esme and Rose. But every once in a while she would unconsciously design something that would have been perfect on Bella. Today was one of those days and I was battle hard not to storm downstairs and rip her arms off.

_I will have to distract myself, _I thought bitterly. Normally, the piano would have been my distraction of choice. Esme had even purchased a brand new one in hopes of enticing me back to it. I could not deny that it was a beautiful instrument, the sole piece of furniture I would allow her to put in my room. But I had only ever been able to start the tempo meter, and today was no different.

_Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, _I stared at the hypnotizing needle as I tuned out Alice's blue dress creation. She knew what I was doing, but she was much to into this creation to stop on my account.

Soon the sounds of her drawing chanted though. No longer was she making slow deliberate lines across the page, now they sounded quick and erratic, desperate even. _Was she really that mad at me? _I wondered, I mean I was making an effort here for her. But once I heard her whisper my name, I knew there was something horribly wrong, Alice would never push me talk.

Opening up my mind to her again I was shocked to her her work of art now littered with corpse after corpse. Before I could even ask her what the drawing meant, she had already began on a new one. Slowly, I watched line after line morph into a recognizable image. Washington DC. Washington DC burning to the ground. When she finished the image she began to scribble something in the corner of the page, as if she was singing her work. _1/31, _only a few days away. Exhausted from her vision, Alice laid her head down on the glass table, hard enough to cause a slight crack to form and leaving no sound throughout the house but for the ticking of my piano.


	3. AN

**Disclaimer: Forgot to do this at the start of this story. But obviously all of these wonderfully developed characters were not birthed by me. I do not own Twilight, I just simply love it. Also, I would appreciate some feedback if you have the time to give it. Thanks so much everyone. **


	4. The kitchen table

The Kitchen Table

* * *

It had been years, centuries even, since any of us had been human. Yet still, we all held onto bits a pieces of our pass humanity, clinging to old habits as if our very existence depended on them. The kitchen table was one of those habits. To a human, the kitchen is the heart of the home, central to life in almost all capacities, a place to prepare food, eat, socialize, work, and come together as a family. To us Cullens, the kitchen had mostly transformed to a facade for the rest of the world, but the table was still ours, still the center of the family. It is Around the table where we decided to take in Alice and Jasper, where we decided to enter into a treaty with the wolfs, and where we decided to both move back and leave Forks. And it was here, around our newest black lacquer table, where we would all come together again for the first time since making that harsh decision last September.

This table wasn't as lavish as Esme usually preferred, but then again, she had bought it in a haste. It was simple, round, dark and muted, crafted entirely from one large piece of raw wood with eight high back chairs positioned neatly around it. If you ran your fingers over the top you could still feel the roughness of the tree grain, and in running my fingers over the surface I found a slight solace which allowed me sit with Alice while she awaited the arrival of my family. She was beyond distraught, lost inside her swirling visions of death and destruction. Even though being out of my room seemed to suck the air right from my chest, Alice needed me and so I remained by her side, tracing the lines of a tree that I was probably already older then it was when it was ripped from the ground.

Luckily, everyone arrived back within an hour, having rushed home immediately following my call. They didn't even wait to hear what was wrong, knowing that if I had bothered to use a phone then it must be important. I heard Jasper's approach first, he was running at his full speed, his thoughts running haywire right along with him. _Why hadn't she called me herself, whats going on, what did he do... Edward, Edward can you hear me yet? So help me God if Alice is hurt because of your self-__loathing bullshit... _His steps were erratic, clumsy even for a vampire. I could hear him sloshing away through the mud, breaking sticks and boulders as he ran. I didn't blame him for thinking whatever was wrong with Alice was my doing. It was logical reasoning.

I was surprised to hear the tell tale soft wisps of Esme's graceful prance come up right behind Jasper's thumping. She had never been a fast sprinter, so she must be running on the fumes of pure love and concern. I felt a pang at the thought that she would undoubtedly be feeling more pain in a moment, I didn't know how much more her sensitive soul could take. Sensitive_ soul, just like my Bella_ I thought as I momentarily allowed some panic to creep into my mind. I had been avoiding thinking about what all of Alice's hellish visions could mean for my love, but it was an avoidance I would not be able to keep up for much longer. _Be strong, keep a cool head,_ I told myself, _you have yet to see an image of the west coast, she will be ok. You will have time to get to her, be strong, keep a cool head... _I continued to chant as I awaited the coming ambush.

"Alice, Alice baby I'm here, where are you?" Jasper screeched as he tore through the front door, splintering the wood with his unchecked strength. One second later he barreled into the kitchen, screeching to a halt in front of the table. The site of him torn and tattered in the high couture clothing Alice had bought for him would of normally set her into a frenzy. But today she remained sitting in the hard backed chair, stone still, trapped inside her own head.

Just then Esme floated in to asses the situation. "My babies" she cried out coming over to my side. She knew Jasper would be there for Alice, I was her main concern and I hated that fact immensely.

"how long?" Jasper hissed to me. I did not wish to speak, already feeling highly overwhelmed by Alice's images and the incoming thoughts of the rest of my family. But Jasper was desperate, squeezing onto the back of Alice's chair causing the wood to creek and wither under his hands.

"an hour, in and out. Its visions of... of... I don't know what... war I guess and it will happen soon." I mumbled out to him. Esme shuddered with the noise of my voice and placed her cold hands upon my head.

"Where?" she whispered.

"Where? Where? Who fucking cares where Jasper roared. Look at her- she has never been out that long before."

"Jasper baby calm down. She will be fine, you just need to talk her out of it ok? You know you can do it." Esme coached, completely ignoring his repeated use of her most hated profanity.

Jasper is by the most rational strategic one of us all and so it only takes one calming encouragement from Esme it right his nervous enough for him to take the appropriate action. Leaning down, he gently placed both hands on either side of Alice's porcelain cheeks, pressing his nose against the tip of hers. "My sweet little fairy tale listen to my voice please, I need you to come back to me... close it off baby just for a little while, close it off and talk to me, let me help you darlin..." He continued on softly cooing words such as this until Alice's visions started to dim from my head bring forth bits and pieces of Alice's unique inner voice.

_Edward, tell him I am ok. Tell him I am coming back soon, I just need a few more moments. I need to see more... just a little more..._ her strong loud inner voice beakend to me. Her voice always made me smile, it was so very deep and loud, such a contrast to her actually voice and reminded me that my little Alice wasn't so little on the the inside.

"She is in there Jasper, she is ok, she wants a few more moments. Just hold her hand and wait. When the others get her she should come around." I gruffly whispered to him.

Jasper sighed and nodded slightly to me. "Such a stubborn little pixie" he said to no one in particular before picking Alice up and sitting himself down in her chair. With his legs extended onto another chair he allowed Alice to stretch out on his lap, cradling her snugly on his lap. Alice's body immediately molded to his, her awful visions remained, but morphed somewhat to have a warm golden hue surrounding them. It made it slightly easier to stomach all the carniage running through my head, carniage which I had to pay attention to at all costs.

Esme pulled a chair closer to me and sat along side us in waiting, drumming her fingers lightly against the table top. I could already hear the approach of the others, they were still about two miles out though. There could only be one reason why they had fell so far behind, Rose must be busy being difficult. Thinking of my beautiful bitchy sister made me feel utterly exhausted. She would not be happy having to rush back home thinking that I had cracked up again, he patience for sharing the "light" as she like to think of it was running very thin. I had been taking way too much of the families time lately. But still, I loved Rosie dearly and had always had the advantage of being able to see her for her true self. I knew, almost as well as Emmett, that Rosie talked a good game on the outside soley a means of protecting herself. She had a good heart I just thought it was a shame that most of the world would never see it.

_Son, I will be there in 30 seconds I hope you are ok. _Carlise's thoughts interrupted my musings on Rosie. _We stayed behind for a few so that your sister could finish up her kill I hope that was the right decision. _He was worried, as always, about how to best take care of all his children needs at the same time.

_Eddie, Eddie Eddie, you couldn't stand to not be the center of attention for one day huh?... though I do hope he is not really harmed..._ Rose's inner voice battled with itself as she grew closer to the house. I knew Emmett would be right behind her, strong, silent and supportive. Together they all whipped into the kitchen, a cold breeze trailing behind them. And without a word they quickly filled the remaining seats at the table. Now there was just one empty, the one that should be filled by my mate, my Bella.

"Well, what is it this time my dear needy older brother, and I do hope it is good... poor Emmett was just about to get a huge mama bear" Rose snickered to me.

"Awwh Rosie don't," Emmett injected, "Look at Al, something really is up now doll." He played with her perfectly manicured fingers as he spoke, knowing that she would feel bad momentarily and wanting to soften her blow. Rose looked towards her favorite sibling, _ oh shit you idiot, its Alice __not Edward. What is wrong with you? _

_ "_She is alright Rose, please calm down I can't take much more negative emotions" Jasper said through gritted teeth.

"Well what the hell is going on with her then?" Rose said twisting awkwardly in her chair.

"It appears as if she is just stuck in a vision dear" Carlise spoke, resigned and worried. He looked to me with eyes full of questions, _we are waiting son. _

"Shes... shes.. seeing..." I began to stammer only to be interrupted by Alice's tiny exhausted voice.

"Hell, I'm seeing hell on earth" she whispered before snuggling her face into the crook of Jasper's neck. I was relived to no longer be responsible for to translate for her. "We, we only have two days before it starts... and I can't figure out what IT is or WHO is doing it... all, all I know is that many, many humans will die. The cities will burn... world, world wide..." Her small body was trembling so violently that it caused the table to shake and shudder as if we were being hit by an earthquake. I could feel Jasper trying despertly to send out calming waves to her but it didn't seem to be elavting much of anything at all.

"No Jazz, I don't want to calm down, I want to help, we have to help all them, they are too weak they... too many will die... we must do something" she sobbed resting her head roughly down.

"Alight my lovely girl we all want to help, but in order to do so you must calm down a little so we can figure things out." Carlise was always the voice of reason in our family. "Focus on Jasper Alley let him help you so you can help everyone else." Alice nodded silently to our father, but she was unable to hide her annoyances with him. "Take her upstairs for a few minutes Jasper, when she is ready we will be here." It didn't take long for Jasper to listen to Carlise, they were gone in a flash of white light probably before Alice had even had time to process his words.

"Come on Edward how bad is it, are we gonna get to see some action" Emmett joked, trying to do what he does best, and make light of the situation. But inside he was worried, his mind antsy and fidgety. Even before I could answer him he was up walking towards the tv with the intention of scanning the news channels.

"Come one Bear, don't worry about this silly shit" Rose whined. "Since when do we give a damn about anything the humans do to each other,... well except maybe for the stock market. Edward you should get on that, move some money into the weapon companies like you did during the last world war.." She was rambling now, trying hard to put out her tough girl fight. But her mind, was paying attention to the sounds of CNN from the living room. There was breaking news on, as is always the case, but of course it was trivial fluff at best. An unexplained power outtage in Paris. No the humans had no idea what was coming.

"No Rose, money is not going to matter anymore." I quietly stated. "It won't mean anything, this is... real."

"Tell us then Edward, enough self-loathing tell us what she saw." _So my job as being a translator is yet to be finished_ I thought bitterly before turning myself into robotic mode. It was easier to divulge into this if I tried to block my families mental responses out. " The visions are chaotic at best, just glimmers of... of.. aftermath. It is all carnage and mayhem, death and destruction. Washington appears the most, but there are other places as well, New York will be gone, Miami, Chicago, Paris, Rome, Tokyo... I think, I think it is nuclear because of the flashes she is getting." With that statement Emmett turned off the tv, silently coming back to sit by Rose.

"I see Korea, and Moscow, I see... I see Aro too... Aro is aware of something. He is, he is stockpiling humans at the Volutrie tombs." My family was audible gasping now at my shocking words, but I was unable to stop by this point. "There will, there will be survivors, in each city, but not many. They will flock to somewhere dry... some dessert I don't now where... and, and there still has not been any vision of the west coast... of, well of her." I added almost inaudibility. But I knew my family had heard me as clear as day because with those words everyone's minds jumped to the place where mind had always been, to my beautiful Bella.

_We should warn her_ Carlise though, _We have to save my baby _Esme screamed to herself, _Stupid, Stupid ass you just left her so weak and alone, _Emmett growled. _Alice will never forgive me or him if she dies, _Jasper worried from upstairs. They were all right of course, I should never of left her.

"Alice, if you can hear me, get your ass down here already and start looking specificlly for Bella's future," Rose's voice sang out sharply yet twinged with an oddly loving tone. _What Edward,_ she thought to me, _we have been through enough shit for this human to let her die so damn young. I'm a bitch but I'm not a heartless bitch. _

_I am trying Edward, _Alice screamed to me through her thoughts as her and jasper came back tot he table. She was struggling to focus her mind onto Bella, and I prepared myself for the obvious pain that would come with the sight of her face, slowly digging fingernails into the table, pulverizing the wood.. I knew it would hurt to see her shining face again but it was a hurt I longed for. _She has to be ok, she has to be ok..._

In an instant, a brief flash of her beautiful heart-shaped faced appeared behind my eyes. But this was not the vibrant love of my life that I remembered, this woman was sickly and sunken. She was cowered in a strange place, huddled over an oddly shaped pile of clothes, and looking as if the life was quickly seeping out of her pores. And then, just as quickly as she had appeared in my head, she was gone, replaced by an never ending void of darkness. Esme's table never stood a chance, "Noooo" I screamed in agony before throwing the table up against the kitchen ceiling. It cracked in three pieces before falling back down to the floor, no one bothered to move out of the way of the debris. And no one needed to ask what I had saw.

"I will be going now, I think this discussion is clearly over." I said quietly to everyone before dashing towards the door. They all knew better then to try and stop me. But as soon as I hit the forest floor I could feel the vibrations of two of my siblings following behind. There wasn't anytime to figure out who had followed, I had to get to Forks before it was too late.


End file.
